“Think of your family today and every day thereafter, don’t let the busy world of today keep you from showing how much you love and appreciate your family.”–Josiah
Life can be pretty hectic. I know mine can be. Between my job with Showcase, being vice mayor, serving on numerous committees, coaching tee-ball and everything in between, the days can grow pretty short. In the midst of all that, it becomes very easy to forget the thing that matters most in the world to me: my family.
For the past few years, our family takes a vacation to Topsail Island, NC for a week, usually in August. This year we pushed our vacation up to July, since Kingston, our son, will be starting kindergarten in August. In previous years, I always had to come back for a city council meeting or some other function I was expected to attend, and it took me away from our vacation for a day or two. In reality, however, I didn’t have to come back. I chose to come back. There were plenty of reasons for me to justify it: “I’ve never missed a city council meeting and I don’t want to miss one now” or “people will be disappointed if I’m not at this ribbon cutting.” And while those arguments have merit, they shouldn’t hold water. I stay pretty busy for roughly 358 days of the year; I should be able to spend 7 days focused on nothing but my family.
This year, I finally made that choice. No matter what came up, I was staying at the beach and staying in the moment with my family. What a huge difference it made. I don’t know that I’ve enjoyed a week in my life more than I did the week we spent at Topsail this year. We played on the beach, ate great food and even swam in the ocean with wild dolphins. That quality time with my family is something I’ll treasure forever.
While I’ve returned to work and all the things that come with my “normal” routine, I’m trying to keep in mind the lesson I learned on our vacation this year. And that lesson is this: there will always be more meetings, more functions, more events. But those special moments with your family, especially young children, are fleeting and that is time you can never make up. I intend to make the most of my time.